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Kelly Ripa announces Ryan Seacrest as her new ‘Live’ co-host

Kelly Ripa (“Live with Kelly”) didn’t win her Daytime Emmy nomination for Best Entertainment Talk Show Host on Sunday night, but she’ll have company when she tries again in 2018. On Monday, May 1, she finally announced who will take over full-time as her “Live” co-host: Ryan Seacrest. Watch the big reveal above.

“Live” has been cycling through guest co-hosts ever since Michael Strahan‘s controversial exit from the daytime chat show almost exactly one year ago — May 13, 2016. Strahan ended his four year stint on the series to take a full-time position on “Good Morning America,” but Ripa wasn’t informed before the announcement was made. She took extra time off from the show in what was widely seen as a protest of the handling of Strahan’s exit — “I needed a couple of days to gather my thoughts. After 26 years with this company, I earned the right,” she said upon her return.

Ripa joined the show as Regis Philbin‘s co-host in 2001 after his previous co-host Kathie Lee Gifford stepped down in 2000. Ripa has been on the show ever since, winning four Daytime Emmys for Best Talk Show Host (2011-2012 with Philbin, 2015-2016 with Strahan). She also has a fifth Emmy, and she actually shared it with Seacrest: in 2006 they both won Best Special Class Special as co-hosts of the “Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade.”

Seacrest is best known to audiences as the host of FOX’s singing competition “American Idol,” for which he received seven Primetime Emmy bids for Best Reality Host, but he never won that prize. He did, however, win Best Reality Program in 2010 as a producer of “Food Revolution” with Jamie Oliver.

What do you think of the choice of Seacrest as co-host? Will “Live with Kelly and Ryan” win Daytime Emmys next year? Vote in our poll and comment below, and join the discussion with your fellow daytime TV fans in our forums.